Join the exceptionally cool David Ducci for a wintery workday at Westwood! Last year we received funds through the state of Illinois’ Natural Areas Stewardship Grant to remove invasive species and introduce native seeds in a section of this Illinois Nature Preserve Buffer. Directions: From Woodstock, take South Street southwest out of town and over 14. […]
Join Larry for another restoration adventure at Crowley Oak Woods! Restoration has been occurring on this 80 acre tract since the winter of 2020 and we're making excellent progress clearing the brush from the highest quality areas of the preserve. We conducted our first prescribed burn here this spring and the ground layer has responded in a really […]
Come hang out with your favorite group of restoration warriors as we take out invasive brush and enjoy friendly banter around a toasty campfire. We made a huge dent in February cleaning up the fallen log obstacles that were making it very difficult to manage invasive species along the creek area. This week we'll be working in […]
These workdays are hosted by our extraordinary steward, Margee Pieper, who has been a vital part of the successes at this site. Under her thoughtful leadership, the history and beauty of Irish oaks is finally revealed for everyone to enjoy. We'll be revisiting an area near the pond on the west end of the property to work on […]
This workday is cancelled due to the bad weather expected tomorrow. Join Larry for another restoration adventure at Crowley Oak Woods! Restoration has been occurring on this 80 acre tract since the winter of 2020 and we're making excellent progress clearing the brush from the highest quality areas of the preserve. We conducted our first prescribed burn here […]
This workday is cancelled - we will be conducting a prescribed burn at another site instead. This site may be small but it has a little bit of everything. Small woodland to the south, a large section of wetland in the middle and a patch of mesic prairie to the north. This is also our […]
This workday meets on the second Saturday of the month. Dennis Dreher is our dedicated steward leading these workdays and has been helping to breathe life back into this incredible site since 2006. Come check out all of the wonderful features this site has to offer and give Dennis a hand recovering the dormant beauty […]
Join Larry for another restoration adventure at Crowley Oak Woods! Restoration has been occurring on this 80 acre tract since the winter of 2020 and we're making excellent progress clearing the brush from the highest quality areas of the preserve. We conducted our first prescribed burn here this spring and the ground layer has responded in a really […]
Join Larry for another restoration adventure at Crowley Oak Woods! Restoration has been occurring on this 80 acre tract since the winter of 2020 and we're making excellent progress clearing the brush from the highest quality areas of the preserve. We conducted our first prescribed burn here this spring and the ground layer has responded in a really […]
Join us for one of our last workdays at Westwood before the summer hits. Sadly, one of the oaks came down last week and is obstructing the trail so we'll be working clearing the path and cleaning buckthorn stragglers that we might have missed. Directions: From Woodstock, take South Street southwest out of town and over 14. After […]
Join Larry for another restoration adventure at Crowley Oak Woods! Restoration has been occurring on this 80 acre tract since the winter of 2020 and we're making excellent progress clearing the brush from the highest quality areas of the preserve. We conducted our first prescribed burn here this spring and the ground layer has responded in a really […]
We have to take a break from Crowley for a little while so we're going to be switching to Irish Oaks to make up for some of the bad weather days we've had lately. We'll be revisiting an area near the pond on the west end of the property to work on removing the buckthorn and […]
It's time for our "Final" Friday brush clearing event with Kim!!! We'll be taking out invasive honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet along the property boundaries. Directions: When you turn off of Fleming road the driveway splits into 4; take the second driveway from the left. Park along the circle driveway by the house. Nearest address: 1312 S. Fleming Rd. […]
This property is part of a 93 acre continuous stretch of woodland preserved by Al Van Maren and MCCD - formerly known as Community Research Forest. As we've cleared away the invasive brush much of the ground layer seems eager to rebound with native species that have been dormant in the seed bank. We'll meet […]
Join the exceptionally cool David Ducci for one of our last workdays at Westwood before the summer hits. A local boy scouts troop will be joining us so we could use more sawyers this day to keep all of those extra hands busy! Directions: From Woodstock, take South Street southwest out of town and over 14. After you […]
Come check out a new(ish) TLC site! Slough Creek Wetland is approximately 83 acres of wetland, sedge meadow and wet prairie located in the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge corridore and adjacent to Slough Creek Fen Nature Reserve. This site was donated to us in 2020 and it's time to begin the radical restoration transformation! There's also a […]
These workdays are hosted by our extraordinary steward, Margee Pieper, who has been a vital part of the successes at this site. Under her thoughtful leadership, the history and beauty of Irish oaks is finally revealed for everyone to enjoy. By this time we'll be well on our way to clearing brush over on the "island" so this will likely […]